KCTV5.com released a report that a family was kicked out of their hotel room by management for reporting bed bugs! The hotel they pointed to is Value Place Hotel in Kansas City, MO (KC South – Grandview Triangle) 11301 Colorado Avenue Kansas City, MO 64137 (816) 761-4545
They stated that the management claims people like this bring in the bedbugs and kicking them out was the right thing to do. However, after researching this story, I found that comments were left on Trip Advisor reporting bedbugs back in September of 08.
A tricky tactic? Sure is, by kicking the family out, they put the family on the defensive and thereby reduce the chances Value Place Hotel will be sued. Amazing!
Here is a letter sent to hotel management by Angela Carpenter, who didn’t get the results she had hoped for:
This is a letter I sent to the main office of value place and haven’t heard anything back..To whom this may concern;
My name is Angela Carpenter.
I recently stayed at your location in Louisville KY. on Brookridge Village Blvd. I am writing in reguards to matter that I believe was not properly handled. I rented a room from 10-23-2012 to 1-22-2013. I rented room 419 initially, but was then moved to 330 which was a smaller and more affordable room. I moved in this room on 1-15-2013. (Might I add I do have a reciept that will back up the dates.)
On the 16th when I woke up I was covered in red bumbs on my face and arms. I thought maybe it was a allergic reaction because I do have skin allergies. During that day they began to itch and get become aggravating. I went home treated the bumbs, took benedryl and went to bed. The next morning they continued to get worse and worse. By the weekend my body was almost covered in this bumbs. I never thought to treat them other than an allergic reaction to something. But on the 21st when I went to speak to the manager to pick up some mail she asked me what was wrong. I told her the situation. Not 5 minutes later I got a knock on my door asking to check for bed bugs.
When the maintenance men were done looking. I asked was it bed bugs? They looked at each other and said YES!! I then asked what is going to be done. He said he would tell the manager and she what she wanted to do. I didn’t hear anything back from her. So I went down and asked myself what she was going to do. She said I called OPS but they couldn’t come out until the next day. I went on to work that afternoon and thought about it. And decided to check out immediately.
I was asked were the bed bugs the reason I was checking out I said yes. My aggravation is I was never offered another room. They never offered to clean the room, or give me a new mattress. They made me suffer in the infested room for another night. I never even got an apology from anyone. That is what upsets me most.
Here is my question to the Corporate office. I am very aware this matter was hush hush and no one knows about it. I’m sure it never even left the hotel. I had to uproot and move. I had to throw away a lot of my personal belongings. And had to spend almost every penny i had and had to borrow money from family to rewash clothes and everything that could be washed at a laundry mat.
The emotional and physical issues I have had to deal with to heal my body this week. I was going to let this go and caulk it up as a bad experience. But I just can’t. I am gong to be professional about this and keep it private. I will not broadcast it all over Facebook or to the Better Business Bureau for that matter. But I do ask to be refunded my last week stay there and be refunded the money I spent at the laundry mat, and also the money I spent at the pharmacy for medication to heal my body.
I will be expecting a response in a promptly manner.
All of the cooperate office and employee speaking on here are full of themselves and know it.I work in a real HOTEL and know standard protocol for bed bugs and these idiots have no clue.bed bugs can be present and you could be there getting bit and not know it for the fact that it depends on how your body reacts. Its a factth.bites could not show up for 3 day up to a month.I say all this because I stayed at a “value place” and discover the bugs I was quite discrete and Carly calm about reporting the situation,they moved my room to the the floorabove same room. Tell me Ms. VP isn’t itstandard to spay all room next to above and below cause it could be infested as well. Maybe that 40 thousand should have been spent on training the staff instead of replacement of infested furniture. Oh and the mat covers for all future guests information are put in place 99.9% of the time cause the establishment knows there’s is an infestatation and wont properly handle it cause ifs expensive and cover are cheaperto trap and kill bugs or save on mattresses. And Colorado must be the place to be a value place “property manager” that’s a joke its glorified super 8 not a luxery hotel don’t title them as such cause they act like there God and do act and say whatever thy want totally disrespting there guests and have staff that are a real prize I gaurentee Ms.VP is is going to get back on here and say more to back her company as it should be but if situations where handled as they should be in a hospitable manner as you are in the hospitality industry. Things wouldn’t escalate to this I’ve researchdd this a bit every value place has these situations with rudes
I’m am sitting in a Value Place Hotel right now typing away and stressed, covered in Bed Bug bites :*( I’m really crying, and something like this should not be taken lightly or brushed off because as Gina the president of Value Place stated it was a poor person who was in a room with bed bugs. Ill tell i didn’t even know what a bed bug was until i came here and was still denying it while myself and children were covered in bites. I thought bed bugs was just a over exaggerated tale and could never happen to me until i decided to pull down the sheets and search my bed. Bed bugs everywhere!! One even popped when i picked it up in tissue and blood went everywhere! Ill be glad when i leave in the morning, my son is sleeping in a chair and my daughters are snuggled in the kitchen floor. I’m losing my mind trying to stay awake. I have read over the night that all Value Places in NC are infested with Bed Bugs. This is not a tale guys, please take it very seriously. When we checked in we saw the office clerk with a large pesticide can and was just spraying everywhere and i don’t even think he was licensed to spray. I cant wait to leave in the morning. -_-
I have recently stayed at a value place in Byram Mississippi and found the stay to be very uncomfortable due to the serious roach infestation. The housekeeper told me that the entire building was infested with roaches. This was a very disappointing experience and I will never patronize this business again. I even considered going to the media and expose this problem. No one should be subjected to this kind of filth.
I beg to differ with you Gina-Lynne Scharoun.. President of Value Place… My Husband, who works as an Instrument Tech, for a very prominent Co. recently had the misfortune of staying in one of your motels.. Upon checking in, the staff was friendly and stated that fresh towels and room cleaning would be done every two weeks…
My Husband works a 10 hr a day 6 days a week so once he comes back to the motel, all he wants to do is relax and prepare for the next day…The towel replacement thing never happened, so hubby washed the towels himself weekly with his other laundry, (half of the washers and dryers didn’t work)..fresh linens were never delivered, nor was his room cleaned (he was there three weeks)…
The carpet was SO NASTY, that the white socks that he wears where he got out of the shower, were BLACK, (new socks are put on each night after showering)…About a week ago he noticed that when he woke up, he had been bitten by something, which left a red mark on his arm, passing it off as a possible spider bite, he let it go..a few days later, he was awakened, by something biting him in different areas on his body..He turned on the light and there above the bed spread, was a BED BUG!
From there, he pulled the bedspread back, which he never sleeps under the sheets or bedspread, but on top of it..he found about 6 BED BUGS..adult size.. He caught one of them and put it into a container as he was not sure what it was..never seeing one before, called me and explained the situation…he had bites on his fingers, legs and arms from these bugs..after taking it to work and showing it to the guys there..it was confirmed..BED BUG!
My Hubby decided it was time to move out of this NASTY INFESTED BED BUG MOTEL, so had to turn in a 48 hr vacate form..which he did..when going to the front desk to explain why he was moving AFTER the value place had already taken out his rent for the week without approval and 2 days EARLY…that is when the problems began…when the word BED BUG was mentioned, the who atmosphere changed with the staff…He was called a liar, and told that the NASTY OIL workers, were the ones that brought them in, and that my Hubby brought the ones in his room in with him when he came?..
The mgr of the value place 7958 IH35 S. in San Antonio Tx where all this happened, came flying out from the back room and proceeded to disrespect my Husband in a way that should be taken into court which is being looked into ..My Husband politely told the staff that they had a BED BUG problem, showed them the bug he had contained (which was now dead as it was left in his truck in the container in the HOT Tx heat for 10 hrs and either died from no air..or from temps exceeding 120 degrees and above, which is known to kill these nasty little critters…The mgr cussed my Husband up one side and down the other, then begged my Hubby to hit him, after pushing my Hubby out of the room physically after ripping the bed from it’s frame and all the sheets off, then exclaiming there are no bed bugs in this bed and if there are, you brought them in, not letting him get some of his things..
Everyone was outside of their motel rooms watching what was taking place, as my Husband was being verbally abused and embarrassed, profanity was used in EXCESS, Thank Goodness My Hubby is not a violent person as the person before that told management he had BED BUGS in his room was also thrown out with the same behavior from staff, but this guy tried to punch the mgr for his rudeness… My Hubby has since moved into a NICE Apt which in the long run costs way less then the 240 plus a week he was paying at the value inn…Any of you people out there looking for a motel to stay in while in San Antonio Tx..STAY AWAY from this motel, unless you want to deal with BED BUGS and a staff that is way out of control and needs anger management classes on how to respect and deal with people..Cleanliness classes would also help…BEWARE
Has anyone had a pest problem at the Lakeland, Florida ValuePlace? I’m planning a visit in April with several children and I’m a bit concerned since seeing all the above complaints. Thanks in advance.
OMG!!! Reading all your comments is exactly the way we were treated when we stayed at the one in Brownsville Texas. Not dealing with bed bugs, but something worse! First of all we checked in at 10 am on a Saturday got everything unpacked then decided about 5 pm its pretty hot in our room, so I check the air conditioner & of course its froze up so umm yes I would say its broken, & let me tell you folks its hot in Brownsville Texas!
I call the guy on duty and tell him about the air conditioner being broke and its very hot in our room, this was his response “we will have it fixed on Monday for now open your window”, My response “excuse me sir but can you get us another room, & how wood you like to be on vacation in 120 degree weather with no air in your room and have to open your window” Well of course he didn’t help so I called the supervisor, they never got back to us until the next day which is Sunday now & tells him to go ahead and give us another room, but at this point we already have everything unpacked and already getting use to the heat so me being nice says since its already Sunday night and yall are going to fix it.
Monday morning we will go ahead & stay in this room so it will save us some trouble of having to move to another jacked up room. Anyways Monday morning comes around and 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 am goes around 12:00 pm so I call front desk & the supervisor answers I ask him “so what time are yall gonna replace our air conditioner?” His response was “They told me that yall were ok with the way it was” my response was “Heck no, we have been waiting since Saturday for a good air conditioner & have been waiting all morning because he promised us a new one on Monday morning, sir its Monday afternoon & we are on vacation really dont want to spend our vacation in this hot room”!
They replaced it FINALLY! By this point my blood is boiling. The internet connection & speed was horrible! Ok so we finally had a great vacation and its time to check out, they dont want to give us our $100 deposit back, they say it will be in, in a couple of days to call them then. Umm Heck no when you check in they promise your deposit back at check out.
Well I wasn’t leaving without it & I’m sure by this time they hate me but o’well I think if you spend your money on something then you should get the best out of it! So we get home after our 16 hour drive & our whole family has scabbies!!!
This is horrible I call corporate office of value place tell them everything and still haven’t heard anything back from them so I guess its time to call again!!! I think we deserve our money back!!!
I’m glad to see I’m not alone in this problem. I have been at Value Place Florence for 3 weeks and can not get them to treat for bedbugs or move us and yes I was asked to leave for complaining also. I was harrassed, called a liar, told we caused the problem and treated like crap. I called the corporate office 4 times and was told the district manager would contact me. Of course that has never happened. I’m sending a report to the BBB. The also deactivated my 17 year old sons room key out of spite. How can you legally kick out a minor from his parent?
From day one & until we moved out we had nothing but one problem after another with Value Place. Not to mention the fact that we were treated very rudely. The first problem was how filthy our room was when we moved in. The floors were really dirty & the carpeted area didn’t appear to have been vacuumed. The room also had a “musty” odor. Our next issue was the internet. It was EXTREMELY slow!
I tried for 4 days to speak with the manager about that & a few other things. When he finally contacted us he said he would no longer charge us for the internet due to the fact that it was slow. That was appreciated! However, Memorial Day weekend we had to go almost all day without the internet because it wasn’t noted on our account that we would no longer be charged for the internet. Also, when we first moved in we were told that our room would be cleaned every other week, but on Thursday the housekeeper came to our room twice asking if we needed our room cleaned. That wasn’t the problem…the problem was that it seems like no one knows whats going on around there.
Next, on Friday we reluctantly paid for another week & went on about our day. Upon arriving back we encountered yet another problem…the front entrance door wasn’t working so we had to walk around the whole building while having both our arms full. When we got to our room our key wouldn’t work. I went back & forth to the office & back 4 times to get my key “re-keyed”. As it turns out the battery had run out on the door thing. Meanwhile my wife & I were stuck in the hall for 45 minutes waiting for someone to come fix the problem. One would think that routine maintenance would prevent such hassles!
To date, we haven’t received any compensation or even an “I’m sorry” for all the trouble. Last but not least, on Monday we had to check out before our departure time due to work. We did get our deposit back but we were not refunded the rest of out rent money. I understand that there are policies about early check outs, but considering all the aggravation we had to endure we figured refunding us our money was the least Value Place could do. Sadly, we were wrong! Also, upon leaving we were charged .32 cents that was taken out of our 100 dollar deposit for a phone call. We didn’t mind paying it, but its the principle of it. Value Place got nearly 200 extra dollars from us, but they still needed a lousy .32 cents. That is absolutely ridiculous & pathetic!!! We had no idea Value Place was so desperate for money!
My wife & I have traveled all across the South East & stayed in numerous hotels. We have NEVER had problems like these with any other place we’ve stayed. We’ve also never had to deal with such rude, incompetent & money hungry people. Needless to say, we are EXTREMELY disappointed with Value Place. We will NEVER stay at another Value Place nor recommend anyone else to! No one deserves to be treated the way we were treated.
I am currently getting kicked out of value place for bed bugs – wow!!!! they were fully developed ones and this is my first time staying at a hotel never seen these things in my life and getting kicked out for it i want my money back i payed for a week and a 100 dollar deposit! this is wrong! I think I should get my money back!!! Not my fault that they have bed bugs
hi im a employee at the ha penny inn in el cajon california. my boss is doing this wrong I fee! what she does is take out old mattress from other infested rooms to give to her customers that have bed bugs. then what happens is it gets worse not better. she gets cloth covers that are not air tight. then she will get spray watered down and spray it like that. i have to go into these rooms and clean them or wash the bedding. not fair! i myself should not have to be exposed to it or others. what do i do???
With all due respect to the value place representatives.
After researching these bed bugs, there seems to be consensus that it takes 7-16 days for bed bug eggs to hatch. After hatching, the bug has to go through multiple molting cycles which can take up to a month. So, in conclusion, if you stay at a value place for a week and a half, without staying at any other hotels or ever even seeing a bed bug before and find them. If the previous is true, and you find fully developed adult bed bugs at Value place, they were there before you got there.
Some people just trust places to be properly cleaned, and unless you sweep the room with a magnifying glass you will not spot the bed bug eggs on a walkthrough of the room.
Value Place on Cliffdale Rd in Fayetteville has been the worst stay I’ve had in any hotel in years. I’ve been here two weeks and have not had any room service. You also hear the neighbors watching TV half the night. The internet is slow but they want $10.00 a week for it. Pathetic!
The page on bedbug hotels serves as a warning resource for travelers.
Actually… I work at value place and personally call a pest control company the moment bed bugs are reported and they usually come out the same day. The housekeeping cleans the room very well and inspects for bed bugs, and again, if any are found we get pest control right away.
So if some one reports bed bugs they most likely brought them in. Its unfortunate but true. If they report them the firs day that is different, it means they may have been overlooked while being cleaned but that is highly unlikely. You can not stay an entire week and then report bed bugs, of course you will be kicked out. When bed bugs is definitely found we have to fumigate the room itself and the surrounding rooms, just to be safe.
Safety and cleanliness is our top priority.
I’m dealing with these nasty critters at the weekly rental I’m living in….. Management their is awful!!!!!! They bombed my room like they were supposed to. But they wouldn’t even allow my family to stay in another room until the cleaning was all day. So my family ended up sleeping on a dead bug infested carpet and they left the furniture in there with dead bugs also. I’m so disgusted by the way this situation was handled I promptly called their corporate office to complain that their manager of this building has absolutely no kind of compassion for his tenants. Wonder what he would do?
Gina the reason that you invested all that money is to replace the infested rooms beds and mattresses. Sounds like it was about 20 rooms or so?? LOL and you don’t see the problem?
I work for Value place and the VP of Operations got bed bugs from staying at a value place! He got them in the last month.
The reason that Value place has bed bugs is… They wait 2 weeks after the bed bug is reported and confirmed from (Fairfield, Ohio) Ecolab.. All of the other companies that Ecolab services have the bed bugs sprayed the same day!
It takes about 2 weeks for the paperwork to go thru and then Ecolab gets the ok to spray..This is why they have a problem..
The owner of the Fairfield location is also the owner of the Fort Wayne ind location..Owner is Cole Elis 614-469-8222 and area manager Chris arguello 317-513-1372 and VP of operations how had bed bugs Chris Metcalf.
hey how about some emails for these guys!!!!
Owner: coleellis@sbcglobal.net
Area manager: carguello@valueplace.com
VP of Operations: cmetcalf@valueplace.com
Oh before I forget David Redfern is the VP’s BOSS! call 1-800-value place and for David personally!
Fort wayne has the same problems.. In feb 2010 fairfield had 42 rooms down because of bed bugs? ahhhh they only have a total of 119 rooms and 3 of those rooms have employees staying in them.. All of the hotels have the same problems because of the way they handle the bed bugs!
I you ever say at value place and see beds and bed frames and mattresses being put in the dumpsters.. watch out its bed bugs!
More to come later!!
WOW, ina world where Presidents of companies turn the other cheek to complaints, Ms Gina-Lynne Scharoun actually responded to a complaint.
I commend this company, I have not had to stay at a value place, but I will try it because of the genuine concern she shows in replying to this post. we cannot all take to heart what is reported in the news, the news is meant to incite drama, if we fall for it, we become uneducated consumers.
Recently my son-in-law was working out of town and stayed at the ValuePlace in Byram, MS. The staff was wonderful, very courteous and customer oriented. He doesn’t smoke, but he took the only room they had which was a smoking room. He should have done a pre-stay walk, but did not because he trusted everything to be in order.
The deposit and first week’s stay were put on my credit card. When he checked out, the site manager told him the linens were missing and the comforter had a cigarette burn and stain on it that would require keeping my deposit. He reminded here that he had turned in the linens previously and purchased his own because the sheets put on the bed were stained and dingy. He also reminded here that he was a non-smoker in a smoking room and had no smoking company as he worked before daylight until after dark.
She agreed and said she would try to get the stain out. When my daughter contacted the corporate office about this lady’s attitude, they were told she would not even try to get out the stain because they called corporate on her and she would be keeping the deposit. There is much more involved at this point and I have contacted my credit card company and an attorney.
With all due respect to Ms. Trotter, she came to us through a non-profit organization asking for help to give her shelter until she found a home. We did so with generosity and an eye toward community involvement.
What our Kansas City franchisee should have added was that they recently invested $40,000 to ensure overall cleanliness of the property which included a professional inspection for bed bugs, and added special mattress pad covers to help prevent bed bugs.
Performing routine inspections, focusing on high cleanliness standards, and training property staff are all good preventative measures and are common practice in our hotel system. And, it is frequently and unfortunately a fact that bed bugs are brought in with a guest.
Since this facility had very recently been certified clean, we returned the money for Ms. Trotter’s stay to the non-profit group that had paid on her behalf. Since Ms. Trotter’s departure, the surrounding hotel rooms have been inspected and we have found no further evidence of bed bugs and the room in which she was staying has been treated and is now free of bed bugs.
We continue to make health safety, cleanliness and affordable shelter for our guests our highest priorities.
Gina-Lynne Scharoun, President of Value Place Franchise Services LLC